Chapter 5 Adelaide’s Aboriginal Cultural Markers: Phases 1 & 2

26 Pages·2013·6.41 MB·English

by  Gavin Malone

Chapter 5 Adelaide’s Aboriginal Cultural Markers: Phases
1 & 2
Chapter Outline
This chapter documents and contextualises public space Aboriginal representation
(or lack of it) in Adelaide in Phases 1 and 2 in more detail to document the Markers
found and demonstrate the characteristics of and delineation between the phases.
Phase 1, termed The Silence, is characterised by the overall lack of Aboriginal
representation and covers the period from colonisation in 1836 to 1960. The
discussion of this phase examines why this absence of representation existed. It also
draws attention to an early, and unusual, possible Aboriginal inclusion. Phase 2,
termed Breaking the Silence, is the initial phase of public space Aboriginal
representation in Adelaide and covers the period from 1960 to the early 1980s. The
phase is characterised by the pattern of individual artists choosing to include
Aboriginal acknowledgement or recognition in their public works. There was not
generally a request by commissioning authorities for them to do so. The discussion
of this phase contains the detail of the provenance of the Markers to provide an
historical context, reveal how the Markers came about and examine the role of
individual artists in bringing about the first Markers, as it was mainly artists who
initiated Aboriginal pubic space inclusion. Tracing how, and perhaps why,
individuals contributed to this social change and public space representation, and to
outline their influences and motivations for including Aboriginal culture in their
public works in Adelaide provides an historical overview not elsewhere documented
or discussed.
Phase 1. The Silence: 1836 to 1960
The lack of Aboriginal representation in this period is not surprising; it reflects and
supports the general attitude of the period in that Aboriginal people were excluded
from mainstream society and thus from the public space and popular memory. In
terms of public space memorialisation and commemorations, Adelaide, as a colony,
and as a former colony of Britain, was mimicking the ‘mother country’. As Pickles
(2006:16) pointed out in the case of New Zealand but equally applicable to Australia
and to South Australia in particular:
It is also significant that with striking uniformity, all forms of memorialisation
evident in Britain were copied outside of Britain. Colonial mimicry was at
work, with settler societies such as New Zealand taking their lead from the
metropolis, attempting to build national identity out of a strong attachment to
the imperial centre.
She further pointed out that:
… white settler societies formed national identities out of their imperial pasts.
These were hegemonic identities that asserted the superiority of British-
influenced cultural, political and economic structures. For settler societies
proving colonial worth came from imposing imperial standards (2006:14).
This is supported by Milner (1994:223) ‘… these colonies of European settlement
were imagined precisely as overseas extensions of Europe itself, as “Self” rather than
“Other”, as new Britannias all’.
Phases of Aboriginal Inclusion in the Public Space in Adelaide…since Colonisation, Gavin Malone 2012 80
As the Indigenous peoples of the British Empire were not included in the public
identity or mainstream commemorations in Britain, there was no precedent at that
time for Aboriginal people being included in commemorations in the colony. This is
confirmed in Adelaide’s public statues and commemorations erected in the two main
cultural precincts, North Terrace and Victoria Square from 1890 to 1960 (Table 7).
Adelaide’s Public Statuary, North Terrace and Victoria Square
1890 - 1960
1890s
. 1892 Venere di Canova (Venus statue). Unveiled 3rd September, North Terrace
. 1894 Robert Burns (poet). Unveiled 5th May, North Terrace
. 1894 Queen Victoria (monarch). Unveiled 11th August, Victoria Square
1900s
. 1903 Sir Thomas Elder (pastoralist, mining magnate and philanthropist).
Unveiled 29th July, University of Adelaide, North Terrace
. 1904 John McDouall Stuart (colonial explorer). Unveiled 4th June, Vict. Square
. 1904 South African (Boer War) Memorial. Unveiled 6th June, North Terrace
. 1906 Col. William Light (founding Surveyor-General). Unveiled 27th November,
Victoria Square (Moved May 1938 to Montefiore Hill)
. 1906 Sir Walter Watson Hughes (pastoralist, mining magnate and
philanthropist). Unveiled 28th November, North Terrace
1910s
. 1916 Rt Hon C. C. Kingston (colonial Premier and Q.C). Unveiled 20th May,
Victoria Square
. 1916 Captain Charles Sturt (colonial explorer). Unveiled 21st December, Victoria
Square
1920s
. 1920 King Edward V11 (monarch). Unveiled 15th July, North Terrace
. 1924 Sir Samuel J. Way (Chief Justice 1876-1916). Unveiled 17th November,
North Terrace
1930s
. 1931 South Australian National War Memorial. Dedicated 25th April, North Tce.
. 1934 Capt. Mathew Flinders, R.N. (colonial explorer and navigator). Unveiled
12th April, North Terrace
1940s and 1950s
. Nil
Table 7 Public Statuary, North Tce. & Victoria Sq. 1890-1960
The statuary is overwhelmingly of men and as Osborne (2001:10) pointed out ‘…
monumental public statuary in the western world has constituted what Hobsbawm
(1995:13) has called, “an open air museum of national history as seen through great
men.”’
The colonial and then the state government were not the primary commissioners of
public statuary and commemorations of this period; they were mainly sponsored by
peers, the influential and the well-to-do as outlined in Table 816. According to
Cameron (1997:ii) statues were often planned and promoted in the close confines of
the Adelaide Club, a prestigious men’s club. The Adelaide City Council was also
16 Cameron (1997) is the source of this information in conjunction with personal investigation.
Phases of Aboriginal Inclusion in the Public Space in Adelaide…since Colonisation, Gavin Malone 2012 81
influential and during that period it essentially represented those interests. Aboriginal
people were not included in this grouping of civic elites, and given their lack of
political and economic power their exclusion can be readily understood. It is not
surprising that they were not recognised.
Adelaide’s Public Statuary, North Terrace Cultural Precinct and Victoria
Square, 1890 – 1960
Initiated by Funded by
1892 Venere di Canova William Horn William Horn
1894 Robert Burns Caledonian Society Caledonian Society
1894 Queen Victoria Sir Edwin Thomas Smith Sir Edwin Smith
1903 Sir Thomas Elder Peers, Committee Peers
1904 John McDouall Stuart Peers, Committee, Caledonian Society,
Caledonian Society Public Subscription
1904 South African War Public Committee Public Subscription
1906 Col. William Light The Citizens Public Subscription
1906 Sir Walter Hughes Family Family
1916 Hon C. C. Kingston Peers, Committee Peers, Public Subs.
1916 Captain Charles Sturt N.K. Public Subscription
1920 King Edward V11 Adelaide City Council C/tee Public Subscription
1924 Sir Samuel J. Way Peers Peers
1931 National War Memorial Government Committee State Government
1934 Capt. Mathew Flinders Public Committee Public Subscription
Table 8 Public Statuary: Initiators and Funders
In this phase the state government only sponsored one commemoration directly, the
National War Memorial on North Terrace, a major public monument (Figure 5-1).
As will be discussed, it was only much later that governments became involved in
addressing social equity and inclusion of Aboriginal peoples.
Figure 5-1 National War Memorial, 1931, North Terrace, Adelaide
Phases of Aboriginal Inclusion in the Public Space in Adelaide…since Colonisation, Gavin Malone 2012 82
The absence of Aboriginal representation is also part of what Taylor (2000:30) has
described for the Australian city of Perth as ‘the process of selective social memory
… in the 1960s’. Seddon (1995:76) reinforced this absence in stating that ‘All
unpleasantness, both past and present, was screened from consciousness.’ Aboriginal
issues and the more violent and inhumane aspects of colonisation of Aboriginal
peoples were part of an ‘unpleasantness’ that did not concur with the dominant
colonising narrative.
There are however two infrastructure projects, a century apart, in this phase which
have an incidental reference to Aboriginality. They are the grotesques at the Adelaide
Gaol (1841) (Figure 5-2) and a plaque on the Adelaide Bridge (1931) (Figure 5-3):
both are indicative of the social placement of Aboriginal people in the period.
Grotesques, Adelaide Gaol, 1841
Within the first five years of colonisation there is one possible representation of
Aboriginal people, the grotesques at the entrance to Adelaide Gaol. The grotesques
are reputed to be of an Aboriginal man and woman, a bizarre inclusion. If true, this is
the first inclusion of Aboriginal people or culture in the symbolism embedded in the
colonising buildings, and the public space in Adelaide17. In 1840, just four years
after the founding of the free settler colony, which had no convicts, Governor Gawler
embarked on the construction of a gaol designed by colonial architect George S.
Kingston to replace a temporary stockade located in what is now part of the
Government House grounds (Slee, 2010).
Adelaide Gaol was of elaborate proportions for a fledgling colony and at a cost of
£34,000 was an extravagance that contributed to the recall of Governor Gawler and
the near bankruptcy of the colony (Langmead, 1997:47). At the entrance to the Gaol
there is a sandstone arch capped by a coat of arms, the insignia of the power and law
of the Crown and its colonial administration. Supporting the base points of the arch
are two grotesques (Figure 5-2), the architectural ornamentation depicting human
faces, often in anguish or distortion.
17 Whilst the construction of the gaol has been much studied, most of the original documentation has
been lost over time. I have talked to several people; architectural professor Donald Langmead studied
Kingston’s career and whilst he knows of the story, has been unable to locate any evidence either way.
Deanne Hanchant-Nichols, a former Manager of the Old Adelaide Gaol has heard the story but
believes it to be an urban myth. Sue Scheffeirs, another former Manager also knows of the story but is
neutral as to its validity. Heritage architect Lothar Brasse, who first told me of the grotesques, heard
about them some decades ago and believes it a possibility.
Phases of Aboriginal Inclusion in the Public Space in Adelaide…since Colonisation, Gavin Malone 2012 83
Figure 5-2 Grotesques, 1840, Adelaide Gaol, Adelaide Parklands
The facial features of the grotesques do have an Aboriginal semblance but that could
also be said of other grotesques where the face is distorted from a European norm.
They would have been carved by a stonemason rather than a sculptor, and would not
be expected to be fine facsimiles. The form of a grotesque can also be an imaginative
flight of fancy by the carver, freed from the restrictions of other stone carving. There
are several other grotesques on a tower at the Gaol but they do not have the same
look. The Gaol is located on the opposite bank of the River Torrens (Karrawirraparri
in Kaurna, the Redgum forest river) to the former Native Location Pilta wodli and
Kaurna people were part of the fabric of the early settlement. Could the stone carver
have chosen to represent the Kaurna, perhaps as a curiosity for someone just arrived
from Britain?
One function of grotesques on architecture is to provide a warning. Could these be a
warning to Aboriginal people that colonial law also applied to them whether they
subscribed to it or not? The enforcement of British law on the Aboriginals peoples
was a prime colonising objective (Pope, 2011) so their representation in the symbolic
nature of the gaol’s architecture is a distinct possibility. The first female prisoner in
the Adelaide Gaol was the (Kaurna) Aboriginal woman Wariato who in 1841 was
convicted of stealing potatoes from a farming property at the Reedbeds and
sentenced to 14 days hard labour (Old Adelaide Gaol, n.d.). Less than ten years
earlier, the Reedbeds, or Wittonga in Kaurna, were a prime habitation area for
Kaurna. The second and third persons executed in the fledgling colony were Kaurna
men. They were executed for murder by public hanging on 31 May 1839 in the North
Parklands, near to the Native Location Pilta wodli before the construction of the
gaol. Many Kaurna and other Aboriginal people were required to be onlookers (Slee,
2010:40).
There is no documentation to support these possibilities but the Grotesques are
included to document them in case further evidence comes to light.
Plaque, Adelaide Bridge, 1931
The other incidental Kaurna reference in this period dates from 1931. A plaque on
the Adelaide Bridge (Figure 5-3), the main bridge in the city over the River
Torrens/Karrawirraparri on King William Road, depicts Kaurna life adjacent to the
river, a woman and child in a shelter (wurlie) and a man looking towards the river,
Phases of Aboriginal Inclusion in the Public Space in Adelaide…since Colonisation, Gavin Malone 2012 84
with an early wooden bridge in the background. The plaque is one of a series of four
outlining the history of bridges in the locale.
Figure 5-3 Plaque, 1931, Adelaide Bridge, King William Road, Adelaide
Whilst the river in the city area was a prime habitation area for Kaurna, they were
dispossessed of the area within the first decades of settlement. The inclusion of
Aboriginal people in this particular plaque is not likely to be a deliberate
acknowledgement of the value of Aboriginal culture. It is more likely to serve the
purpose of locating the early time period of the bridge it commemorates and to locate
Aboriginal people as part of the past.
In line with the period of this phase thus far, there is an apparent absence over the
next thirty years. The narrative of Aboriginal inclusion now moves to 1960 and the
first more deliberate recognition of Aboriginal culture in the public space.
Phase 2. Breaking the Silence: 1960 to early 1980s
The first inclusions of Aboriginal culture in public space artworks; the artworks are
predominantly by non-Aboriginal artists.
Ten Markers illustrate this phase. Nine are by non-Aboriginal artists and one, a
mural, had an Aboriginal involvement. To provide an overview of this important
introductory phase of Aboriginal public space inclusion, all Markers are discussed
and the genesis of several of the Markers is elaborated to explore who was involved
and the history, motives and outcomes of these early Markers. Sculptor John Dowie
and architect/artist Geoffrey Shedley, who were lifelong friends, were responsible for
five of the Markers in this phase, including the first two in the 1960s.
Piccaninny Drinking Fountain, Rymill Park, Adelaide, 1960
The earliest work located dates from 1960. It is the Piccaninny drinking fountain
(Figure 5-4) by sculptor John Dowie, in Rymill Park, part of the parklands on the
eastern edge of the city of Adelaide. The modest scale sculpture depicts a crouching
Aboriginal girl with a coolamon-like bowl on her head acting as the water container
for the drinking fountain.
Phases of Aboriginal Inclusion in the Public Space in Adelaide…since Colonisation, Gavin Malone 2012 85
Figure 5-4 Piccaninny Drinking Fountain, 1960, Rymill Park, (John Dowie)
In early 1960 Dowie had travelled to Alice Springs in the Northern Territory with the
South Australian Museum ethnologist Charles Mountford. From there they went to
Jay Creek Aboriginal Reserve, west of Alice Springs in the MacDonnell Ranges.
There Dowie modelled busts of three Aboriginals named Nikachilpa, Uanie and Tim
(Lock-Weir, 2001:83; Palmer, 1999:114,115). About that time the Adelaide City
Council (ACC) commissioned him to develop a sculptural base for a drinking
fountain. The resulting work, Piccaninny, was installed in Rymill Park in October
1960 (ACC, 1983:112). No evidence has been located that suggests that the Adelaide
City Council dictated the theme of the ornamental drinking fountain and it is
reasonable to assume it was at the initiative of Dowie, given his visit to Jay Creek
just a few months earlier. The Council was a conservative body (as reflected in
discussions about the design of the Three Rivers Fountain later in this chapter) and
was most unlikely to have specified an Aboriginal representation. Dowie’s decision
to represent an ‘Aboriginal’ person in his drinking fountain sculpture appears to have
been a personal one, based more on artistic and cultural than political reasons.
The Rainmakers, Lohmann Park, O’Sullivan Beach, 1965
The first major public artwork with Aboriginal content located in greater
metropolitan Adelaide is The Rainmakers (Figure 5-5) by Geoffrey Shedley, an artist
and an architect with the South Australian Housing Trust. The sculpture was
unveiled on 21 May 1965 by the then Premier of South Australia, the Hon. Frank
Walsh, M.P. The design and casting process of The Rainmakers probably took place
over several months, meaning Shedley’s concept dates from 1964.
The Rainmakers is located in Lohmann Park, O’Sullivan Beach, which in the 1960s
was a newly developing outer metropolitan suburb of mainly public housing. The
sculpture was a gift from Eugen Lohmann, Governing Director of Wender &
Duerholt, a West German company that supplied prefabricated timber housing to the
South Australian Housing Trust in the 1950s. The Trust was a government statutory
authority charged with designing urban developments and supplying housing to the
booming post-war population. Scottish migrant Mrs Ruth Murphy is pictured with
the statue in 1965 (Figure 5-6).
The dedication plaque includes the following explanation of the Aboriginal figures:
The Rainmakers
Phases of Aboriginal Inclusion in the Public Space in Adelaide…since Colonisation, Gavin Malone 2012 86
Before the dawn of history
The Australian Aborigine
Became isolated from all men
And roamed this continent
Creating his own arts and culture
Two old men of the tribe
Squat over the sacred rain stone
And chant their age old songs
To bring water for the people
And food for the creatures
Figure 5-5 The Rainmakers, 1965, O’Sullivan Beach (Geoffrey Shedley)
Figure 5-6 The Rainmakers in 1965 (Photo courtesy NAA, A12111)
It is believed the idea to represent Aboriginal mythological figures came from
Shedley rather than Eugene Lohmann who had commissioned the sculpture ‘to
commemorate his good feelings for the [Housing] Trust and South Australia’ (City
Phases of Aboriginal Inclusion in the Public Space in Adelaide…since Colonisation, Gavin Malone 2012 87
of Onkaparinga, 2005:8). According to Shedley’s daughter, Mrs Josephine Lawrence
(2009, pers. comm.) 18:
The subject matter of the Lohmann commission probably came from Geoff, not
from Eugene Lohmann. Lohmann was building houses for workers to settle at
Christies Beach so maybe Geoff wanted to commemorate the first occupiers of
this land … He always knew that the Aboriginal people were the original
owners of the land at Christies Beach and were one of the oldest civilizations,
well before Egyptian, Greek, Roman, etc. … Another reason for using
Aboriginal figures could be that he wanted something very different from the
Windsor Green Fountain19, but still incorporating mythology and relevance to
place.
His daughter also remembers going with her parents to Hallett Cove and Red Ochre
Cove (significant sites in the Tjilbruke Dreaming), collecting Aboriginal flint flakes
in the dunes at Moana, a beach south of Adelaide, and visiting ethnologist Charles
Mountford's house.
As his daughter stated, the sculpture was intended to acknowledge the local
Aboriginal people who had once lived in the area. The name of those people, the
Kaurna, was not often used and was possibly unknown to Shedley as with the
broader public at that time, there was not the specific knowledge of Kaurna people
and their culture. The sculpture is a de facto recognition of Kaurna people.
The Rainmakers was to have one immediate impact or influence. In 1966, a year
after its dedication, when Dowie’s design for the proposed Victoria Square fountain
was being considered the Adelaide Town Clerk said ‘It is hard to visualise how it
[the fountain] will turn out. I shouldn’t compare sculpture but the one down at
Christies Beach [O’Sullivan Beach] I like and so do the kids because they climb all
over it’ (ACC, VSFC Minutes, 21.12.66). The kids (children) continue to climb all
over the Rainmakers. Several Aboriginal people who grew up in the area have
related to me how they played on the sculpture and felt secure and protected tucked
into the cavity formed by the two Aboriginal mythological figures.
In summary, Shedley took the initiative to provide Adelaide with its first major
public space representation of Aboriginal culture, The Rainmakers. This statue also
represents the commencement of the process of non-Aboriginal artists attempting to
represent Aboriginal mythology through Western art conventions.
Mural, Shedley Theatre, Elizabeth, 1965
In his role as an architect with the Housing Trust, Shedley was also involved in the
planning and design of the new satellite city of Elizabeth, north of Adelaide. Part of
this was a civic centre and a theatre, now named after him. Simultaneous to The
Rainmakers he painted an Aboriginal themed mural, 23 metres by 1.8 metres in size,
(Figure 5-7) for the auditorium of the Theatre, opened on 25 August 1965. The
Shedley mural was demountable and was removed from the Theatre during
18 Mrs Lawrence made contact with me after becoming aware of my research through a paper
published in 2007. She volunteered personal information on the artworks and the friendship between
Shedley and Dowie.
19 The Windsor Green Fountain, sculpted by Shedley, was part of the Elizabeth, civic precinct
development. In the mid 1960s Elizabeth was a greenfields development, a new city expanding the
metropolitan area to the north of Adelaide, with a mainly British migrant population
Phases of Aboriginal Inclusion in the Public Space in Adelaide…since Colonisation, Gavin Malone 2012 88
renovations in 2002 and is now held by the City of Playford awaiting a potential new
display opportunity. The theme of this work was inspired by a visit to the Aboriginal
rock peckings (engravings) in Chambers Gorge in the northern Flinders Ranges
(Figure 1-2), which Shedley visited as a young man in 1938 (Josephine Lawrence,
2009, pers. comm.). The dynamic figures in the mural appear to be based on the
Mimi figures from Arnhem Land in the Northern Territory.
Figure 5-7 Mural, 1965, Shedley Theatre, (G. Shedley) (Photo City of Playford)
Little is known of the circumstances in which this work was instigated but it is
presumed that it was at Shedley’s initiative as part of his role as a design architect for
the new Elizabeth civic precinct. The Housing Trust had a major role in post-war
social and civic development in the provision of housing and urban infrastructure.
This provided individuals such as Shedley with the opportunity to present two early
Aboriginal themed works through the public benefit outcome program of the
Housing Trust. The Trust was later to have an ongoing role in the commissioning of
Aboriginal themed public artworks as part of urban developments.
Howie Memorial Aboriginal Statue, Walkerville, 1967
A work concurrent with Shedley’s was the Howie Memorial Aboriginal Statue
(Figure 5-8), commenced in 1964 but not unveiled until 1967. The statue, located in
the Howie Reserve, Walkerville, was commissioned to honour Lawrence Howie,
Principal, South Australian School of Art and Craft from 1920 to 1941 and President
of the Royal South Australian Society of the Arts from 1928 to 1932.
Figure 5-8 Howie Memorial Aboriginal Statue, 1967, Walkerville (Q. Harris)
Phases of Aboriginal Inclusion in the Public Space in Adelaide…since Colonisation, Gavin Malone 2012 89